1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a display device and a method of manufacturing the display device. More particularly, the present invention relates to an organic light-emitting diode (“OLED”) display device including OLEDs and a method of manufacturing the OLED display device.
2. Description of the Related Art
An organic light-emitting diode (“OLED”) display device typically includes a base substrate, an OLED display portion formed on the base substrate to display an image thereon, and a cover substrate disposed opposite to, e.g., facing, the base substrate.
The OLED display portion generally includes a plurality of unit pixels, and each unit pixel of the plurality of unit pixels includes an OLED which displays a particular color, for example. Generally, the OLED display portion is easily adversely affected by external moisture entering the OLED display device or external impact, for example.
In order to protect the OLED display portion from the external moisture, a space between the base substrate and the cover substrate is sealed using frit glass cured by a laser beam, for example. Specifically, the frit glass is formed along an outline, e.g., a periphery, of the cover substrate and is combined with the base substrate to protect the OLED display portion from the external moisture.
As a size of the cover substrate increases, however, a middle portion of the cover substrate sags under an increasing load applied to the OLED display portion due to the increased size of the cover substrate. As a result, the cover substrate impacts the OLED display portion.
In addition, gas generated in a process of curing the frit glass with the laser beam has a negative influence on the OLED display portion.
Because of the abovementioned disadvantages, the typical OLED display portion is required to be covered by a separate protective layer which protects the OLED display portion from impact by the cover substrate and the gas generated from curing the frit glass.
As a result, manufacturing costs of the OLED display device increase and manufacturing processes of the OLED display device are complicated, since the OLED display device is required to include the cover substrate and the protective layer.
Thus, a need exists to develop an OLED display device which overcomes the aforementioned problems.